House Republican leader Rep. Don Turner (center), seen here in January, said his caucus didn't offer many amendments to the tax bill in order to keep opposition from splitting. / FREE PRESS FILE

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Free Press Staff Writer

MONTPELIER — Opponents of the $27 million tax package that a majority in the House passed Thursday morning may have lost the battle, but they showed they had enough muscle to sustain a veto, should Gov. Peter Shumlin choose that route later in the session.

In Wednesday’s vote to give the bill preliminary approval, opponents mustered 55 votes to supporters 85. The 55 included eight Democrats, one Progressive and one independent. The final vote on passage was by voice vote.

The governor has said he doesn’t like the House tax bill. He will press the Senate to rewrite the tax bill and he will have some allies there.

“Dick Mazza is not going to go along,” Sen. Richard Mazza, D-Chittenden/Grand Isle, said of the House package in a comment to House Republican Leader Don Turner of Milton when they passed in the Statehouse corridor Thursday morning.

Turner explained that his caucus chose to voice its opposition to the tax bill, but not offer a raft of amendments trying to dismantle it in order to solidify rather than splinter opposition to the package.

“This allows us to show the governor there was enough opposition,” Turner said, referring to 51 votes needed to support a veto. “If he thinks it is that bad and he decides to veto it, there are enough votes to sustain.”

Senate President Pro Tempore John Campbell, D-Windsor, offered no hints about what the Senate might do with the revenue bill.

On one hand he said, “I think the House Ways and Mans has done an incredible job.” In the same breath, Campbell said, “We will just take all of it as recommendations.”

The lone amendment that Republicans tried unsuccessfully to make to the tax bill also supported a Shumlin initiative — to make permanent a moratorium-imposed sales tax exemption on cloud computing.

The moratorium on assessing the sales tax on the purchase of pre-written software via the Internet expires on July 1. The tax is projected to raise $2.3 million, with $800,000 going to the Education Fund.

Rep. Paul Ralston, D-Middlebury, joined Scheuermann in calling for an exemption for this sector of the economy.

“Taxes do change behavior,” Ralston said. “This tax will change behavior. I urge you to think about that when you vote.” He explained later that while the tax might not have a big financial impact on business, psychologically this is a “devastating blow.”

Ways and Means Committee Chairwoman Janet Ancel, D-Calais, said her panel didn’t consider the cloud tax exemption during its deliberations on the options for its tax package. She noted, however, that allowing the tax to take effect would not make Vermont an island. “We would not be an outlier in taxing pre-written software.”

The vote on the cloud computing amendment failed by a vote of 90-50, but the number of opponents, which included Democrats, suggested the governor could count on some help on trying to win support for holding off on the tax.